Morocco - Foreign investment

Foreign investment declined somewhat during the 1960s and 1970s because of political uncertainty and the government's Moroccanization policy requiring majority Moroccan ownership of foreign banks, trading companies, insurance firms, and small manufacturing plants. Many foreign firms either sold out or closed down before 30 September 1974, the first deadline for compliance with Moroccanization policies. In an effort to attract foreign capital, the government passed a new investment code in August 1973 that offered substantial tax concessions to private investors. To encourage badly needed foreign investment, a revised code introduced in 1982 permitted foreign investors 100% ownership of local companies in certain sectors and unrestricted transfer of capital. The effective repent in 1990 of the Moroccanization law and regulatory changes, including tax breaks and streamlined approval procedures, led to a more than threefold increase in foreign investment inflows in the four years following its enactment.

A new investment code was passed in 1995 that provided income tax breaks for investments in certain regions, crafts and export industries; and import duty reductions; especially during the first five years of operation. It also contained foreign exchange provisions that favored foreign investors.

In 1997, annual foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows reached over $1 billion, but then fell to $333 million in 1998. FDI inflow in 1999 rose to a near-record of almost $850 million mainly accounted for by two large investments: Telefonica of Spain and Telecom Portugal for mobile phones and Coca-Cola for bottling plants at Fez and Marrakech. In 2000, there was a 76% decrease in FDI inflow to Morocco to $201 million, but in 2001 inward FDI was a record $2.66 billion, due primarily to Vivendi Universal's $2.1 billion purchase of a 35% share of Maroc Telecom.